in the substitution of block for percentage grants, and in a better allocation of burdens as between unemployment insurance on the one side, and the Poor Law authorities on the other, without increasing the actual contribution from the Exchequer.

By dint of assiduous labour, and as was thought in some quarters, with undue haste, during the closing days of the session, the House of Lords carried through all the Bills which had been sent up from the Commons, and they duly became law before the end of the year. The Electricity Bill, although it was sponsored by Lord Weir, the personification of anti-Socialism, met with strenuous and able opposition from the partisans of private enterprise, and these succeeded in introducing into the Bill certain important, but not drastic amendments, most of which were subsequently accepted by the Commons. The Merchandise Marks Bill and the Judicial Proceedings Bill were also severely criticised in the House of Lords, though they were ultimately passed without alterations. The chief critic of the latter Bill was Lord Burnham of the Daily Telegraph-the only remaining newspaper proprietor in London, as he informed the House-who doubted whether it could be made to work without inflicting hardship. Even he, however, did not carry his opposition to the point of voting against the Bill.

Before separating for the vacation, the House of Lords, on December 14, gave its assent to a motion brought forward by Lord Weir declaring that it viewed with grave anxiety the longcontinued state of unemployment and the decrease of productivity in some sections of national industry, and expressing its belief that improvement must come in the main from a better appreciation on the part of employers, employed, and trade unions of their respective industrial responsibilities. The debate turned chiefly on the causes of unrest among the working classes, a subject on which Lord Cecil and the Bishop of Southwark, who had nothing to do with industry, showed themselves much better instructed than the great industrialist, Lord Weir. On the question of industrial responsibilities nothing of consequence was said in the debate, and the House contented itself with endorsing a suggestion of Lord Weir that there should be a round table conference of men of goodwill from all parties to seek a solution to the practical questions with which industry was faced.

On December 2 Sir A. Chamberlain left London for Geneva in order to take part in the forthcoming Conference of the League of Nations, and, as usual, broke his journey at Paris, where he had interviews both with M. Poincaré and M. Briand. He discovered again that there was almost complete identity of views between himself and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on the policy to be pursued in matters which jointly concerned their respective countries. In a statement which he made before he left Paris, he declared that the whole of the improvement which

had taken place in the European situation since the Locarno treaties was based upon the close co-operation of France and England; and he envisaged the possibility of knitting Germany and Italy more closely to them in order to complete the work which they had undertaken-without reference, apparently, to the League of Nations, of which he made no mention.

The despatch, in October, of a British representative to China did not immediately produce any improvement in the situation there from the British point of view. Anti-British feeling continued to grow more intense, and in the last week of November rumours were rife in England that the British residents in Hankow and other places in South China were in grave danger. The Foreign Secretary, in reply to questions in Parliament, stated that the Government was keeping in that region a force which it thought adequate for the protection of British subjects, but were most loth to interfere in the internal affairs of China. The latter half of the statement was received by the Labour Party with scepticism, but the Government soon proved its sincerity by issuing, on December 18, a Memorandum to the Powers which had signed the Washington Agreement of 1921, calling for the adoption of a more enlightened and liberal policy towards the new nationalist movement in China. This movement, it suggested, should be met "with sympathy and understanding; the idea that the economic and political development of China could only be secured under foreign tutelage should be abandoned. The pretence, also, of dealing with a Central Government which had no real existence should be given up, and such regional arrangements as were possible should be made with de facto Governments, and any reasonable proposals which the Chinese authorities, wherever situated, might make should be considered in a sympathetic spirit, even if contrary to strict interpretation of treaty rights, in return for fair and considerate treatment of foreign interests by them. The Memorandum contained an annexe which showed that as far back as May 28 the British Government had protested to the United States against a proposal to extend the foreign control of China's customs revenues.

Before the end of the year the Liberal Party in Parliament once more reminded the country of its existence by publishing its internal dissensions. Speaking at a dinner given in honour of Mr. Vivian Phillips, the Chairman of the Liberal Party organisation, on December 13, Lord Grey proclaimed openly that there could be no reconciliation between himself and Mr. Lloyd George. He regarded that gentleman as a disruptive force within the party, in virtue both of the undesirable policies which he launched and of his retaining control of a separate party fund. Apart from his land policy, his overtures to the Labour Party, and his attitude towards the general strike, he had even since the resignation of Lord Oxford given further ground for complaint by suggesting

that the ideal of the Liberal Party should be to hold the balance of power and to make terms with the Labour Party, and by delivering an ill-considered speech on the situation in China. So far, therefore, as he himself was concerned, he would not say there was unity when he did not believe there was unity, and he advised Liberals to go on working and speaking for Liberalism in the trust that large public issues and a general agreement about principles would bring the unity that was desired. This was obviously a counsel of despair for those Liberals who were not willing to enrol themselves under the banner of Mr. Lloyd George, but no better was forthcoming.

The last political event of importance in the year was a great Labour triumph in a by-election at Smethwick, an industrial constituency on the outskirts of Birmingham, where the Labour majority was increased from about 1,500 to over 6,500. The contest attracted an unusual amount of attention owing to the feverish efforts made by the Conservatives to keep out the Labour candidate, Mr. Oswald Mosley, who incurred their particular aversion as a political and social renegade from their own ranks, being, as he was, a son-in-law of the late Marquess Curzon, and having once sat in Parliament as a Conservative. The result of the election was naturally taken by the Labour Party as a sign that the country was tired of the Government and ready for a change. The Government, however, had as yet no intention of appealing to the country till Parliament had run its course. The experience of the year just past had shown that it could rely with confidence on a large majority in Parliament so long as the Cabinet remained united. This union had been secured during the year largely through Mr. Baldwin's readiness to leave in abeyance his "new Conservative" principles. In the coal dispute the Government had, on the whole, and in spite of some oscillation, shown itself the faithful ally of the vested interests; and by the end of the year the " old Conservative " element was enjoying a decided predominance in the counsels of the party. On the whole, there was, when the year closed, both in the country and in the House, a feeling of some disappointment concerning the year's achievements in the sphere of politics.

FOREIGN AND IMPERIAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

NINETEEN-TWENTY-SIX was a year of consolidation, serving to emphasise the fact that the League was regarded by practically every shade of opinion that counts in every country as a permanent feature of the political landscape and the medium through which even first-class Powers settle first-class issues. The outstanding event was the entry of Germany (Sept. 8), and this was popularly considered to mark a turning-point in post-war history and a new phase in the evolution of the League.

Germany's entry into the League, the preparations for the Disarmament Conference, and the renewed pledging of the Empire to League foreign policy at the 1926 Imperial Conference were merely a confirmation of the line adopted in 1924, and continued in 1925, just as the Thoiry conversations were a natural development of the policy of agreement with Germany initiated at the same date.

It must be admitted that the manner of Germany's entry suggested to some a disquieting connexion between the League and the so-called old diplomacy." The March Assembly, indeed, failed to admit Germany, owing to a counter-claim put up by Brazil, encouraged thereto by a series of confused intrigues and bargains conducted for the most part in secret and issuing in more or less persistent support by the Great Powers of the claims of Spain and Poland to a permanent seat. Brazil threatened to veto Germany's membership of the Council unless she herself were simultaneously made a permanent member. The upshot of the matter was that the extraordinary Assembly convened in March failed to admit Germany, and that between March and September a special Commission proposed a scheme for re-organising the Council designed to satisfy the claims at issue. The scheme, in the form adopted by the Assembly, did satisfy Germany and Poland, but failed to prevent Brazil and Spain giving notice of their withdrawal from the League, a notice which, if acted upon, becomes effective in the summer of 1928. Moreover, the re-organisation of the Council involving, as it did, an increase of the number of elected members from six to nine,

1

with an understanding that three of the nine should be LatinAmerican, and a system of rotation tempered by re-eligibility was, in some quarters, considered as gravely weakening the League by unduly enlarging the Council, and so on the one hand impairing the authority of the Assembly, and on the other promoting the tendency to form an inner ring of Great Powers within the Council.

To this the reply was that the increase in membership of the League and in the complexity of its functions rendered inevitable an enlargement of the Council on objective grounds, and that the system of rotation tempered by re-eligibility was the only way of satisfying the desire of the smaller powers to have a fair share in the responsibilities of Council membership, while leaving a certain elasticity in the arrangements enabling the Assembly, at its discretion, to modify the rule of rotation when there seemed strong reasons for doing so. As all these matters were settled by a majority, or even two-thirds, of the votes of the Assembly, and as questions of procedure, including the formation of committees within the Council as well as the Assembly, were settled by a majority vote, there was every constitutional. facility for the smaller Powers to protect their legitimate interests, provided they had the political pluck and sense of solidarity to do so and if they had not, no constitutional improvements could supply the deficiency.

It was against this constitutional and psychological background that the activities of the League in 1926 must be seen. The most conspicuous of these was the preparatory work for a Disarmament Conference. The question of disarmament had been with the League since the beginning, but remained largely academic until the political developments in Europe to some extent dissipated the embittered suspicions and fears that were the inevitable result of the war. The conclusion of the Locarno agreements and the gradual return of Germany to active partnership in international affairs gave weight to the German Government's insistence-backed as it was by economic considerations and the opinion of persistent minorities in many countries—that a serious effort should be made to carry out the obligation to reduce armaments expressed in Article VIII. of the Covenant and in the preamble to Part V. of the Versailles Treaty, where German disarmament is referred to as a preliminary step to make possible a general reduction of armaments.

A political committee was accordingly set up composed of Government representatives and charged with preparing the programme for a Disarmament Conference. This committee, as

1 Normally an elected member is ineligible for a period of three years after its term of office which is also for three years, but by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly a retiring member or state that is ineligible may be declared re-eligible, although only three of the nine elected members may be so re-elected. Poland was declared reeligible by the September, 1926, Assembly.